The ''Catalan Talgo'' was an international

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes few or no stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, providing faster service than local trains that stop at many or all of the stations along their ...

that linked

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland, with

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain from 1969 to 2010."Stop Press" (changes taking effect). '' Cooks Continental Timetable'' (June 1969 edition), p. 6; also pp. 71, 106, 236. London: Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd.España en el Trans Europ Express
(PDF) '' Vía Libre, la revista del ferrocarril'', No. 67 (July 1969), pp. 4–5. Linked fro
this page
on the website of ''Via Libre'' magazine, dated 15 February 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-03. It was named after the Spanish region

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

and the

Talgo Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains. Talgo is an abbreviation of ''Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol'' (English: ''Lightweight articulated train Goicoech ...

equipment it used. It was an extension and upgrading of a predecessor train, ''Le Catalan'', a first-class-only French (

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

) ''Rapide'' train that had been in operation since 1955 but running only between Geneva and the stations nearest the Spanish-French border, connecting with a second-class-only "autorail" trainset to and from Barcelona. The national railway network of Spain, ''

Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (RENFE) was a Spain, Spanish State-owned enterprise, state-owned company that operated the national Iberian-gauge railways, Iberian-gauge railway network between 1941 and 2005. For more than six decade ...

'' (RENFE), was using

Iberian gauge Iberian gauge (, ) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. A broad gauge, it is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world, with only Indian gauge railways, , being wider (by ). As ...

for all of its main lines, while those of France and Switzerland use

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

. As a result of this

break-of-gauge With railways, a break of gauge occurs where a line of one track gauge (the distance between the rails, or between the wheels of trains designed to run on those rails) meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock generally canno ...

, train journeys between Geneva and Barcelona consisted of two separate parts, with travelers having to change from a French to a Spanish train or vice versa at the border—at

Portbou Portbou () is a town in the Alt Empordà county, in the Province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It has a population of people (). Portbou is located near the French border in the Costa Brava region, and frequently serves as a dropping off point f ...

(alternatively written as Port Bou) on southbound trains and at

Cerbère Cerbère (; ) is a commune and railway town in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.''Cooks Continental Timetable'' (July 1968 edition), pp. 236, 238. Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd. In 1968, this was resolved with the introduction of the Talgo III RD trainsets, which featured

variable gauge Variable gauge systems allow railway vehicles to travel between two railways with different track gauges. Vehicles are equipped with variable gauge axles (VGA). The gauge is altered by driving the train through a gauge changer installed at the b ...

wheelsets. At Portbou station, the wheel spacing of each passenger carriage was adjusted by a gauge changer for the difference in gauge, and passengers no longer had to change trains. After successful test runs, the ''Catalan'' was extended from Port Bou to Barcelona as a through train on 1 June 1969, becoming the ''Catalan Talgo'' and upgraded to a

Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...

(TEE). Most other rail journeys through this border crossing continued to require a change of train at

Cerbère station Cerbère (; ) is a commune and railway town in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. as most trains did not use Talgo III RD trainsets.

Trans Europ Express

Rolling stock

Traction

Initially the ''Catalan Talgo'' was hauled by the

RENFE Renfe (, ), officially Renfe-Operadora, is Spain's national state-owned railway company. It was created in 2005 upon the split of the former Spanish National Railway Network (RENFE) into the Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias ( ...

class 3000 locomotives, the later class 353. These locomotives were not equipped with adaptable

bogie A bogie ( ) (or truck in North American English) comprises two or more Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets (two Railroad wheel, wheels on an axle), in a frame, attached under a vehicle by a pivot. Bogies take various forms in various modes ...

s, so the locomotive numbers 3003 and 3004, which had Iberian gauge bogies, worked the section between Barcelona and the French-Spanish border, while the other three locomotives of this series, which had standard gauge bogies, served the section between the French-Spanish border and

. Already in September 1971, the standard gauge locomotives were replaced by class BB 67400 of

. The broad gauge locomotives were replaced shortly after by class 276 of RENFE. Das grosse TEE Buch, p. 122. In 1975, the route between Geneva and

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

was changed. Instead of

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

the electrified tracks via

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

were used, allowing the entire Geneva –

Narbonne Narbonne ( , , ; ; ; Late Latin:) is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was ...

route section to be worked by an SNCF BB 9300 class locomotive. When in early 1980 the route Narbonne –

was electrified as well, the BB 9300 class was replaced by SNCF BB 7200 class.

Coaches

The coaches are all variants of the type Talgo III RD. These coaches (RT), built in 1968, were deployed until the end of 2010. A

generator car In rail transport, head-end power (HEP), also known as electric train supply (ETS), is the electrical power distribution system on a passenger train. The power source, usually a locomotive (or a generator car) at the front or 'head' of a train, ...

, supplying power for the train's electrical system, is located at both ends of the carriages. These generator cars also provide the coupling to the locomotive because the Talgo coupling between the carriages is not compatible with other railway stock. One generator car, the RT 212, houses the train chief's office, while the other, the RT 211, is provided with a luggage compartment. The basic composition of the train consisted, in between the two generator cars, of nine carriages RT 201, one bar/kitchen car RT 206 and two dining cars RT 210. The RT 206 was situated approximately in the middle of the train, flanked by an RT 210 on both sides; the RT 211 formed the Spanish side and the RT 212 the Swiss side of the train. In case of heavy traffic, up to seven RT 201 could be added, so a train of 21 carriages, each 11.5 m long, could be formed. After the introduction of the RT 202 second-class carriages in 1982, which were conveyed between the RT 206 and RT 212, the RT 210 on that side of the RT 206 was removed.

Route and timetable

In 1969, the TEE service started with the Swiss designation CG, GC (Catalunya-Genève and v.v.) and the Spanish train numbers TEE 83,84. On 23 May 1971, the train was renumbered to TEE 70/71 – TEE 72/73; in Spain the numbers TEE 73,70 were used, from 26 May 1974 TEE 5073,5070. The double numbering is due to the fact that, in both terminals, outbound trains are given an odd number and incoming an even number. The original route was:

– Girona – Portbou – Cerbère – Perpignan – Narbonne – Béziers – Sete – Montpellier – Nîmes – Avignon – Valence – Romans Bourg de Péage – Grenoble – Challes les Eaux – Chambéry – Aix les Bains Le Revard – Culoz – Bellegarde – Geneva-Cornavin. On 31 May 1970, the stops at Romans Bourg de Péage and Sète were removed from the timetable. TEE Ligure 1969

The schedule was designed to provide easy passenger connections to and from the '' TEE Ligure'' in

. The ''TEE Catalan Talgo'' services, in both directions, called at Avignon just after the arrival of the ''TEE Ligure'' from

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and before departure of the ''TEE Ligure'' to Milan. This allowed the travelers to change between the two TEE services at around 3 pm. On 28 September 1975, at the urging of

SBB SBB may refer to: Arts and entertainment * SBB (band), a Polish progressive rock band, or their self-titled albums: ** ''SBB'' (1974 album) ** ''SBB'' (1978 album, Amiga) * Seán Bán Breathnach, also known as SBB, Irish TV personality * ''Saa ...

and RENFE, the route between Valence and Bellegarde was modified, so between Narbonne and Geneva a through electric service could be implemented. The only stop between Bellegarde and Valence was Lyon-Brotteaux (today Lyon Part-Dieu). This was a technical stop only, without passengers boarding or leaving the train. Although this route was one kilometer longer, the total travel time was shortened by almost 40 minutes. A costly side-effect of this change was that an extra train between Geneva and Grenoble had to be operated. In 1982, hoping to attract more passengers, RENFE added second-class carriages to the train formation. As a result, the TEE requirement of first-class-only cars was no longer met, and the ''Catalan Talgo'' was downgraded to a normal Intercity service.

EuroCity

252075 Renfe Catalan Talgo - Mollet del Valles - 23-11-2009 - Luis Zamora

In 1987, the ''Catalan Talgo'' became part of the then-new

EuroCity EuroCity (EC) is an international Train categories in Europe, train category and brand for European inter-city rail, inter-city trains that cross international borders and meet criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. E ...

network.''

Thomas Cook Continental Timetable The ''European Rail Timetable'', more commonly known by its former names, the ''Thomas Cook European Timetable'', the ''Thomas Cook Continental Timetable'' or simply ''Cook's Timetable'', is an international Public transport timetable, timetab ...

'' (31 May – 30 June 1987 edition), pp. 66, 472, 474. Thomas Cook Publishing. In the fall of 1994, with the introduction of

TGV The TGV (; , , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocke ...

services from Paris and Geneva to

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

, the ''Catalan Talgo'' was shortened to the Montpellier – Barcelona part. La Légende des TEE, p. 278. The TGV high-speed line was extended to Barcelona in December 2013. The ''Catalan Talgo'' was taken out of service in December 2010."Le Catalan Talgo", ''Trains d'Europe''
/ref>

References

Works cited

* * * * * * * {{EuroCity trains EuroCity International named passenger trains Named passenger trains of France Named passenger trains of Spain Named passenger trains of Switzerland Trans Europ Express Railway services introduced in 1969 Rail transport in Catalonia Railway services discontinued in 2010